In software development, a metric is the measurement of a particular characteristic of a program's performance or efficiency. A set of metrics is generated as a result of the testing of a software product. The generated set of metrics is stored in a metrics database.
Structured query language (SQL) is a standard protocol for accessing databases. SQL includes features that allow users to query, update, insert data into, and delete data from a database. Many computer programming languages such as C, C++, and Java™ include an application program interface (API) for accessing databases using SQL protocol. For example, when a program written in the Java™ programming language developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. requires access to a database, the program can employ the JDBC™ Application Program Interface (JDBC™ API) and its associated drivers. “JDBC” may have, at one time, been an acronym for Java™ Database Connectivity, but it is now a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Through JDBC, programs written in the Java programming language may access a database using standard SQL queries. More specifically, a Java-program can use JDBC to establish a connection with a database, send SQL statements to the database, process a result from the database and return a result to the program.
Unfortunately, SQL is inadequate for use with a metrics database because metrics are generated for each line of code. Accordingly, when a metrics database is queried by an application program, the standard SQL interface returns metrics data for each line of code. For example, if a query requests the time for execution of a program module, the time metric for each line of code is returned. However, the metrics data associated with a single line of code is generally meaningless.